From the sketchbook — leaves and pinecone

Sketch of leaves and a pine cone with watercolor wash in sketchbook. Click on image to make it larger.

Yesterday I spent studio time working on a fall desert landscape and got the aerial perspective down quite well. That’s when you create distance by having areas in the background get lighter and bluer. And the clouds were fairly ok in the sky. And then, I blew up the painting with a poorly painted tree that just got worse and worse! Once again wish that I’d taken a photo before taking that next step.

So I watched a Sterling Edwards watercolor video on brushes and brush strokes and realized I need to use flat brushes *way* more to do trees and washes, etc. so it that viewing was good timing.

Today I’m practicing brush strokes, making trees, learning more about how much water/pigment certain brushes contain.

So here’s a sketch I did several days ago that I added washes to recently. Sketchbook paper doesn’t allow you to lift and merge washes well, so once it’s down, it’s staying, but I think it turned out ok. Do you sense a theme here of what I like to paint?

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